


broken, twisted love

by Ookomix



Series: Star Wars One-Shots [6]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)
Genre: Ending of the First Order, M/M, Post TLJ
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-06-05 09:03:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15167273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ookomix/pseuds/Ookomix
Summary: The First Order has fallen, and the Resistance is victorious. But for Poe Dameron it comes at a great price.





	broken, twisted love

**Author's Note:**

> Un-beta-ed work from non english writer.  
> You've been warned.

The whole place was silent as the prisoner stood still in front of Poe Dameron the general of the resistance, looking around him like he hadn’t lost the war, hadn’t lost everything. In a few minutes it wouldn’t matter. Despite the scar on his face and the dark shades under his eyes, the man Poe used to call _Ben_ was still beautiful to Poe. Proud like a king, stubborn like a warrior. Closing his eyes with a sigh, Poe allowed himself a moment to breathe, to go back to the fateful day that brought the First Order on its knees for good.

 

 

Poe arrived at the cell so fast the soldier guarding it startled in surprise and raised his weapon.

“General?!”

“I want to talk to the prisoner,” Poe demanded.

The soldier didn’t dare ask, and he opened the door with a simple but fair warning to be careful. Though Kylo Ren was securely shackled and cut out from the Force by the presence of a Ysalamir, he wasn’t any less dangerous. Poe dismissed the warning and stepped in the cell.

Seated against the wall opposed to the door, Kylo was indeed well held in place, both his ankles and wrists chained and strapped to the ground. But he didn’t look bothered by the situation.

“General Dameron,” he greeted with a soft voice laced with venom, “Forgive me if I don’t get up. Please, be my guest, what can I do for you?”

“Please don’t play that game with me,” Poe breathed, taken aback by how _human_ the man they fought and diabolized looked like at this moment. “I have a few questions, and you are the only one who can answer.”

“As Supreme Leader? Or as a Dark Sider?”

“As Ben.”

Kylo fell silent, a frown appeared on his face.

“You never listen. Ben Solo is dead. Has been for a long time.”

“And _why_? To follow a mad man you eventually killed? To rule everything?!” No reply. “Answer me, you idiot! There _has_ to be an explanation!”

But again, Poe found himself facing a blank wall of nothingness. Frustrated, he groaned and paced in the cell, aware of the prisoner’s sharp, black gaze following his every move. Poe stopped, stared at the wall, sighed again.

“I _need_ to know why Ben died.”

“You never got over the grief, did you?” Kylo asked. His voice was careful this time.

Spinning around, Poe snarled and locked his eyes on Kylo’s.

“You took everything from me the moment you decided to run away on a murderous rampage! I _loved you_! I still love the memories you left me with! I have every right to know why you took everything from me!” His breath ragged, Poe looked for words. “Did you hate him? Han?”

“No,” the answer went quickly, “Never.”

“Then _why_?”

After a moment of silence, Kylo eventually graced Poe with a reply.

“The girl, Rey, asked the same question. But with you I will go a little more into the details. The reason why Han –why my parents– had to die is very simple. I loved them too much. And while Luke had betrayed me, broken my trust and my heart, I loved him too. But love is nothing but pain and chains. I loved too much, eventually it was going to be my doom.” He seemed to think about it. “It has been. That day on the _Finalizer_ , I couldn’t bring myself to kill you. And look at you: General Dameron, leader of the Resistance.”

The last confession hung in the air like pure oxygen, and Poe felt dizzy with it. Kylo Ren, the tyrant, the murderer who took his own whole life apart with a sadistic pleasure, was still capable of love just like Ben had been. A broken, twisted, painful love. But love nonetheless.

“You can’t say that to me,” Poe whispered, afraid he would break and shout. “You don’t have any right to say that to me. I don’t believe you.”

“You asked for the truth, Dameron. Here it is. You just can’t handle it.” Kylo chuckled, “Maybe now you understand, there’s nothing beautiful and romantic about love. I didn’t track down the Resistance because they were a threat. And I was right, for it has been the Jedi who stopped the First Order. I tracked _you_ down because you are the only vestige of a humanity I was dedicated to destroy in me. But we are here. And I will have to die human.”

“Shut up,” Poe gritted his teeth, “You’re just trying to unsettle me! A final victory in your pathetic state!”

“I have nothing to gain from that.” Kylo looked down, way calmer than Poe. The idea itself was odd. Suddenly he rose his head and stared at the general. “And you? Do you still love me?”

And it was more than Poe couldn’t handle. Seated on the ground, chained, scarred and beaten and tired, it was Ben’s face that looked at him, asked that question. Poe found nothing to reply. No sharp comment, no sarcasm. And yet the truth couldn’t be told. Not now, not here. There would be no opportunity to tell the truth anymore.

“I guess that doesn’t matter,” Kylo eventually says, lowering his head again. “The outcome of all this will be my death sentence. And once I’ll be executed, you’ll have so much work to do, following Leia’s footsteps and rebuilding the Republic, that you’ll have no more time to think about all that.”

“Do you know how _wrong_ you are? Do you even believe in what you say?”

“No,” Kylo chuckled again, “But I won’t be the one dealing with it.”

 

 

Poe opened his eyes at the mention of his name, and he met Finn’s concerned gaze. Poe smiled at his friend, though there was no joy in it.

“I’m sorry, did I miss anything?”

“Yeah… well, yes.” Finn sighed and rubbed his neck. “Ren’s last request is… You surely know, it’s, like, a _right_ by Republic rules to have a last request, assuming it’s feasible and not harmful…”

“Get to the point,” Poe cut him off.

“He wants _you_ to pull the trigger.”

Poe stopped breathing. He looked around him, spotted Kylo a little further away and surrounded by soldiers. But he didn’t seem unsettled by the situation as he was deeply in conversation with an angry Rey. Suddenly Kylo looked right at Poe like he was capable of reading his thoughts despite the Ysalamir’s presence. Poe looked away.

“Why me?”

“I don’t know. He asked you by name.”

Poe’s throat instantly dried up. He gulped with difficulty. But Finn was right. A last request was a last request. He tried to clear his throat, miserably failed, and he nodded. “Alright,” he said with a strangled voice. But he avoided Finn’s questioning look and quickly approached Kylo. One of his officers then started reading aloud the numerous charges Kylo was guilty of, but Poe couldn’t hear them. All he could think about was Kylo’s question.

“ _Do you still love me_?”

Poe took the blaster one of his soldiers was holding for him. Kylo’s eyes were on him, not even the slightest interested in what was happening around them. Poe never saw him more at peace than this day.

Eventually Kylo was forced on his knees, and Poe rose the blaster without shaking.

“Any last words?” he asked in a voice that didn’t betray how _hurt_ he was right this moment.

“Thank you,” Kylo simply said. And he closed his eyes.

Poe told himself he wouldn’t flinch. He _promised_ himself he’d stay strong until the end. But when he pressed the blaster against the wild curls and pulled the trigger, he didn’t manage to keep his eyes open.

All he heard was the dull sound of a body hitting the floor.

Poe tried to remember how to breathe.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfic has been written a while ago, like all the others that will follow, I just didn't have the courage to post it. Now I'm completely at a loss for writing. So I'm posting everything I have to get rid of it.


End file.
